The exemplary embodiment relates to the disposal of waste material, such as toner. It finds particular application in connection with a container which holds both fresh and waste toner in separate compartments and will be described with particular reference thereto.
In typical xerographic printing devices, such as copy machines and laser beam printers, a photoconductive insulating member is charged to a uniform potential and thereafter exposed to a light image of an original document to be reproduced. The exposure discharges the photoconductive insulating surface in exposed or background areas and creates an electrostatic latent image on the member, which corresponds to the image areas contained within the document. Subsequently, the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive insulating surface is made visible by developing the image with a marking material. Generally, the marking material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules while within the developer housing, which is often referred to simply as toner. The developed image is subsequently transferred to the print medium, such as a sheet of paper. The fusing of the toner image onto paper is generally accomplished by applying heat to the toner with a heated roller and application of pressure.
Fresh toner is supplied to the printing device from a replaceable storage bottle, which is typically mounted to a developer housing that stores the toner prior to applying it to the latent image. As the fresh toner is consumed during the xerographic process, a small proportion of the toner is wasted and deposited into a waste toner receptacle. On average less than 5% by weight of the fresh toner ends up as waste toner. When the waste toner receptacle is full, the printing device displays a message to the user to empty the receptacle, which can lead to printer downtime until a technician or customer removes the receptacle. The waste tone receptacle may be thrown away, rather than being recycled.
The exemplary embodiment provides a novel toner bottle and method of use which allows the waste toner container to be dispensed with and improves printer productivity.